So here we are in January. It’s during the first week of the year that the tired opening gambit used as a conversation opener by decades of summer visitors, “You live here year round? What do you do in the winter?” doesn’t sound so trite after all.

What do we do in the winter?  Well for starters most of us have jobs that actually expect us to show up regardless of the season.  Those with seasonal employment have either left  for places that are the flip side of summer or have, over the years, learned to use the ‘off-season’ to catch up or get a head start on all those things that have been, or will be, crying out for attention.

Island kids who make up much of the summer workforce have gone back to school either here or ‘away.’ So for the most part we, like our off-Island counterparts, have only small precious chunks of ‘free’ time.  Some of this we spend doing the usual home chores, at the grocery, on the phone, driving kids to the raft of activities that crowd each calendar day regardless of the season.

We go ‘off’ to hit the malls, catch a show or catch up with friends. In short we spend our winters much like anyone else except we do it here in this small circumscribed space.  But if you think about it so does everyone: You have your daily round that includes the trip from home to work with maybe a stop to pick up the kids, the groceries or some cash at the bank.  Weekends  there are movies, and family and maybe some shopping and dinner out.  Unless you take a winter vacation, chances are you spend most of your time within a hundred square miles of where you live, as do we, except our hundred square miles ends at the ocean.

So we get to beach-comb, pick up some driftwood, bleached and dried by the summer sun, for the fire at home; rake seaweed to mulch the garden with hopes for a bumper crop of tomatoes and watch snowflakes being swallowed by the waves only to reappear as foam on blustery days. We bake, some of us paint, write or read the darkening hours away. Some of our winter labors show up in Martha’s Vineyard’s art galleries, gift shops, flea markets and the Vineyard Artisans Festivals.

If we are in need of company, almost every day provides at least one way we can connect with one another.  A quick look at the MVOL Calendar of Events reveals that we can: ballroom dance on Sundays, drop by the Pit Stop on Mondays for Open Mic Night, warm up at the Chilmark Community Soup Supper on Tuesdays or at a potluck on Thursdays hosted by St Augustine’s Church and the Hebrew Center. This Saturday we can stroll Polly Hill or learn to carve duck decoys at the MV Museum. So that’s what keeps us busy these days…whatever fills your week,  we hope you enjoy the Week Ahead.